Demonstrates, empirically, the process of continually constituting, unconstituting, and re-constituting —- of persons, places, and things —- that is central to Edmund Husserl's phenomenology. The great value…is its application of a philosophical idea to understanding a concrete event: how we sort through the enormous detail of a happening in order to say it is this way rather than that way.

[Waksler's] honest, careful, and detailed phenomenological analysis to disclose the inner and outer horizons of 'evidence' can be generalized and applied to everyday life. This book leads readers to recognize that we always and already depend on hidden performances and taken-for-granted assumptions….

A taut and engaging interweaving of philosophical reflection and criminal forensics….[It] challenges the reader to question some of our most basic notions of what it means to encounter another human being. This book will appeal to a wide-ranging audience, including practitioners and academics in philosophy, sociology, psychology, criminal justice, military science, and forensics.

…[A] finely detailed and meticulously documented case study…a primer in sociology….Waksler demonstrates the myriad ways in which thinking…is perturbed and ultimately determined by the social setting in which the existence of an Other is open to question. Its subtext raises serious and sobering questions about the reliability of human observation….